Page 91 of Lost the Handle

She nods. “I know you’ve been struggling, but maybe it’s because you’ve had no one when you got home. I’m here now. Let me be your peace.”

“Lovebug, that’s what you’ve always been.”

Her eyes darken as she rubs my neck. “I want whatever you want.”

Her words rattle my soul. “You’ll take care of EMQUINNY until I figure it out?”

Her eyes brighten, her lips curving up in the sexiest little grin. “I will always take care ofourcompany.” She leans in. “Though, no one will sit in the seat beside me but you.”

I cup her jaw, bringing her in for a long, lusty kiss. She falls into me, her chest pressing into mine, and I can feel her heart slamming into my own. As we part, against her lips, I whisper, “You know you’re it for me, right?”

She nods. “I know.”

Her confidence turns me the fuck on, and I feel myself getting harder with every breath I take. “And you always will be.”

She curves her leg around mine, tangling us together as she presses closer. “Always.”

I cup her neck, my thumb stroking along the line of her chin as I gaze into her eyes. “Marry me, Em,” I whisper, unable to look anywhere but into her eyes. If she is surprised by my request, it doesn’t show. “I don’t want to beveryengaged to you. I want you to be my wife.”

Her eyes are bright, her grin unstoppable. “I’ve been waiting a lifetime to have you ask me that.”

“In every lifetime, I’ll only ask you.”

She purses her lips as she leans in, her eyes demanding my attention as she holds my face in her hands. “Listen, I may run in all these lifetimes, but I’ll come back.”

I grin. “Or I’ll chase you.”

A tear escapes her eye, and it guts me. My chest seizes up, my soul burning for her as I whisper, “Lovebug, why the tears?”

“Because I love you more than anything.”

I kiss the tear away, and then I lean toward the drawer of my nightstand. I pull out the old Tiffany ring box, and I grin over my shoulder at her. She looks suspicious before I turn back to hold it between us, and her eyes widen when she sees the box.

“You already bought me a ring?”

I shake my head. “No. There is no other ring in the world for you but my mom’s.” Her eyes fill with tears as she scrambles to rise up on her knees before me, and I move my hand to hold her thigh. I rub the marks along it, and the thought of her getting thicker from carrying my kids one day has heat racing through me. With a shaky breath, I meet her gaze as I hold the box up between us. “Wearing this ring doesn’t mean you have to be like my mom, Em. Wearing this ring means I will love you fiercer than my dad ever loved my mom when she wore it. It means that I will try every day to make you smile, to make you laugh. And I know I’ll get on your nerves and we’ll argue, but before your head hits these pillows every night, I’ll remind you how much I love you and that I can’t wait to see you in the morning.”

Another tear rolls down her cheek, and my grin grows as I fight back my own tears. “Everyone always talks about how great my mom and dad’s love story is, but nothing can touch ours.”

She chokes on a sob as she leans her head to mine. “I will forever drive you crazy, and I refuse to apologize because you are mine, Quinn. You know what you’re getting, and no one will cherish you the way I can. Call me crazy because I am. Totally and completely crazy in love with you.”

I swallow thickly as I open the box for her, the teardrop-shaped black diamond shining up at us. Her breath catches, and then she fist-pumps at her side. “I love this ring, and I hoped you’d choose it.”

“I did,” I whisper as our eyes meet once more. Love sparkles in her gray depths, her chest rising and falling as a flush spreads over her gorgeous naked body. I get to love this girl for the rest of my life.

I’m one lucky bastard, for sure.

Or a complete idiot for marrying someone who can murder me without anyone knowing it.

But that’s the thrill.

Emery’s love is absolutely dangerous.

And all mine.

“I chose it because I think I knew even then that you’d be my wife one day.”

Her lips tremble as she wiggles her hand out to me. “Put it on.”

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